In Fiction
In the English speaking world, gruel is remembered as the food of the child workhouse inmates in Charles Dickens' Industrial Revolution novel, Oliver Twist (1838); the workhouse was supplied with "an unlimited supply of water" and "small quantities of oatmeal". When Oliver asks the master of the workhouse for some more, he is struck a blow to the head for it. The "small saucepan of gruel" waiting upon Ebenezer Scrooge's hob in Dickens' A Christmas Carol emphasizes how miserly Scrooge is. References to gruel in popular culture today continue to refer to miserly or starvation conditions.
A counterexample of literary reference to gruel can be found in Jane Austen's Emma, wherein the title character's well-off but hypochondriac father, Mr Woodhouse, is depicted as most fond of gruel, "thin, but not too thin", for sustenance, health and good character. Gruel is also mentioned frequently in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë as a daily staple meal, even amongst the largely middle class families featured in the novel.
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